Bioverativ Closes $100 Million Gene Therapy Manufacturing Deal

Monday, February 26, 2018

Oxford BioMedica made a deal with Bioverativ worth up to $100 million to supply Bioverativ with lentiviruses for manufacturing its hemophilia gene therapy.

The lentiviruses will be used as vectors to transport DNA into a patient’s cell – a departure from the adeno-associated viruses (AAV) used by other companies such as Spark Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences. “Bioverativ’s investment in hemophilia gene therapy underlines the potential of lentiviral vectors for use for in vivo gene therapy,” Oxford BioMedica’s CEO John Dawson said in a statement.

Oxford BioMedica signed a similar $100 million deal last year to supply lentiviral vectors for Novartis’s leukemia treatment tisagenlecleucel.